Ground organic fuel

ABSTRACT

Organic fuel includes dried organic material ground to a particulate size of substantially less than 300 microns. The particulate material may advantageously be of less than or equal to 10 microns. The organic matter may be chosen from the group containing agricultural waste or wood waste, wherein the agricultural waste may include waste straw and wherein the wood waste may include bark.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/221,889 filed Jul. 31, 2000 entitled Ground Organic Fuel.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] This invention relates to fuel produced from drying and grinding organic matter and in particular to dried organic matter which is ground and pulverized to micron particle sizes to form a combustible fuel.

BACKGROUND

[0003] In the prior art of which applicant is aware, organic fuels have been mixed with another fuel, for example, natural gas, fuel oil or other petroleum products to ensure combustion of the mixture. As an example, applicant is aware of a wood waste fuel developed in Sweden and marketed under the trademark Elenol. Applicant is also aware of U.S. Pat. No. 4,358,292 which issued to Battista on Nov. 9, 1982 for Stabilized Hybrid Fuel Slurries which teaches extending petroleum fuel oils by forming a slurry with mixtures having varying compositions of finely ground coal, particles of carbon black less than one micron, finely ground newsprint, sawdusts, cellulose, and clean organic energy-rich waste materials. In the present invention, a non-oil fuel is produced from grinding and pulverizing materials which include the same raw material used to produce Elenol™ or hogged fuels, the difference being, again, in the present invention, the ground material is not mixed with a petroleum or gas fuel product.

[0004] There are currently in use a number of methods to extract the useable BTU's from waste wood, including the extraction of methane gas. True, the processes have been successful in extraction of the methane gas, which is subsequently burned in a jet turbine to produce electricity. Unfortunately, a great deal of energy is consumed to extract methane and the remaining material is burned as charcoal, an inferior fuel.

[0005] After research into production of the non-oil fuel of the present invention from agricultural waste, applicant discovered that two pounds of such non-oil fuel equalled one pound of gasoline or kerosene in terms of BTU content. It was also found that the BTU content of one pound of wheat straw was very similar to one pound of wood waste, approximately 8,600 and 9,700 BTU. Research indicates that wheat and bark contain approximately 10,000 BTU per pound. This is to be compared to gasoline or kerosene, which contains approximately 19,000 BTU per pound.

[0006] All carbon based matter, whether straw, bark, wood, sugar cane etc., when ground to 10 microns, has the same specific gravity of 1.5. The specific gravity of water is 62.5 lbs per cubic foot, thus a cubic foot of non-oil fuel weighs 93.75 lbs. All organic matter is composed of roughly 48% carbon, 6% hydrogen, 43% oxygen, plus trace minerals and water. Organic matter weighs differing amounts per cubic foot because of the number and size of airspaces within the material. For example, Balsa wood weighs 10-12 lbs per cubic foot while Lignum Vitae weighs 70 lbs per cubic foot. However, when both are micronized, they will weigh 93.75 lbs per cubic foot.

[0007] What follows is a comparison of the useable BTU in each. For this purpose, calculations are based on a cubic meter (35.31 cubic feet equaling 1 cubic meter). Non-Oil Fuel - 10 Microns in size Kerosene jet fuel 93.75 lbs per cubic foot 50 lbs per cubic foot 10,000 BTU per lb 19,000 BTU per lb 937,500 BTU per cubic foot 950,000 BTU per cubic foot 33,103,125 BTU per cubic meter 33,544,500 BTU per cubic meter 98% burning efficiency 82% burning efficiency 32,441,062 useable BTU per cubic meter 27,506,490 BTU per cubic meter 3,310 lbs per cubic meter 1,765 lbs per cubic meter

[0008] Thus, non-oil fuel is a more economical fuel than jet fuel by approximately 18% by volume. The current price of kerosene is $694.40 per cubic meter in Canadian funds. Applicant estimates, at present day costs, the maximum cost to produce non-oil fuel to be $20-$30 per cubic meter Canadian.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0009] The non-oil fuel of the present invention may be produced with relatively minimal cost and without the loss of any BTU. More importantly, the burning efficiency of such non-oil fuel approximates 98 percent, which compares favourably to the burning efficiency of bone-dry wood at 80 percent. Although the non-oil fuel of the present invention may of course be combined with petroleum products in a slurry, the fuel of the present invention is not combined with any other fuel to produce combustion. Such non-oil fuel may be ignited by a spark or by a natural gas pilot flame as an example. It has been applicant's experience that combusting the non-oil fuel of the present invention does not produce harmful emissions in the manner of fossil fuel combustion.

[0010] It may be possible to utilize the non-oil fuel of the present invention as a fuel for electrical generation depending on the fuel delivery system and ignition system in the electrical generator turbine engine. Applicant has noted that, because the non-oil fuel is finely ground, that when it is dry it tends to stick together.

[0011] In summary, the organic fuel of the present invention includes dried organic material ground to a particulate size of substantially less than 300 microns. The particulate material may advantageously be of less than or equal to 10 microns. The organic matter may be chosen from the group containing agricultural waste or wood waste, wherein the agricultural waste may include waste straw and wherein the wood waste may include bark.

[0012] The method of producing the organic fuel of the present invention includes the steps of drying organic material and grinding or otherwise pulverizing (hereinafter generically referred to as grinding) the organic material into particulate form having a particulate size of substantially 300 microns or less. The method may include the step of grinding the organic material so as to form particulate sizes of less than or equal to 10 microns. Again, the organic material may include agricultural or wood waste, although this is not intended to be limiting but, rather, illustrative of carbon-based material including carbon-based waste material.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

[0013] The non-oil fuel of the present invention is produced by drying, grinding and pulverizing organic matter to produce particles having a size of less than 300 microns, and in one preferred embodiment, less than 10 microns. The organic matter may be any organic matter, including although not limited to, agricultural waste such as wheat straw, wood waste, bark, so long as it may be dried, ground and pulverized into a fine powder.

[0014] As stated above, the non-oil fuel of the present invention may also be combined with petroleum fuels for example as a slurry with kerosene. It has been applicant's determination that in such an embodiment the non-oil fuel of the present invention can represent at least 75 percent of the combined volume of the fuel. It has also been applicant's observation that micronized non-oil fuel of the present invention weighs more than kerosene by a ratio of 1.88. Applicant's calculations indicate that, for the same volume of non-oil fuel as compared to kerosene or gas, non-oil fuel has more useable BTU content than either kerosene or gas. It has also been applicant's observation that when mixed with kerosene, the micronized non-oil fuel of the present invention flows as a fluid without particulate adhesion, that is, the particles of the non-oil fuel do not cling together.

[0015] It is applicant's belief that the non-oil fuel of the present invention may be used as a fuel as a substitute for petroleum product fuels. As compared to such petroleum product fuels, the cost of the non-oil fuel of the present invention is negligible in that it turns organic waste into fuel. This also presents the advantage that, by using organic waste as fuel, conventional waste disposal problems are eliminated or at least reduced. So too, the pollution produced by burning fossil fuels is also either eliminated or reduced. It has been applicant's observation that the by-products left from the burning of the non-oil fuel of the present invention are water vapour, and ash, the latter component being reduced to between 0.02 and 0.08 percentage of the original volume of the fuel. Applicant has had success in ignition of flour particles entrained in a stream of air. Once such a stream was ignited, it proved to be self-perpetuating. The dry flour particles were fed from a hopper by the use of an auger which emptied into a stream of air propelled under pressure at about 6 psi. Applicant observed that once the stream was initially ignited, the flame continued to burn and appeared to be reasonably pure so as to indicate nearly complete combustion of the particulate material of the non-oil or organic fuel.

[0016] As will be apparent to those skilled in the art in the light of the foregoing disclosure, many alterations and modifications are possible in the practice of this invention without departing from the spirit or scope thereof. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is to be construed in accordance with the substance defined by the following claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. What is claimed is an organic fuel comprising dried organic material ground to a particulate size of substantially less than 300 microns.
 2. The organic fuel of claim 1 wherein said particulate material is of less than or equal to 10 microns.
 3. The organic fuel of claim 1 wherein said organic matter is chosen from the group containing agricultural waste or wood waste.
 4. The organic fuel of claim 3 wherein said agricultural waste includes waste straw and wherein said wood waste includes bark.
 5. A method of producing organic fuel comprising the steps of: (a) drying organic material, (b) grinding said organic material into particulate form having a particulate size of substantially 300 microns or less.
 6. The method of claim 5 further comprising the step of grinding said organic material so as to form particulate sizes of less than or equal to 10 microns.
 7. The method of claim 5 wherein said organic material is agricultural waste.
 8. The method of claim 5 wherein said organic material is wood waste. 